AN ATTEMPT UPON THE CZAR.
Kathinka remained unmolested for some time, not because Loris had ceased
to admire her, but because the young Count was condemned to a
twelve-months' absence from Kief. This unsuspected stroke of good
fortune for the girl happened in this wise:
Towards the end of the year 1879, it became very evident that Nihilism
was spreading to an alarming extent in the army. Four officers of Loris'
regiment were arrested on a charge of disseminating revolutionary
pamphlets and were summarily exiled. Another officer had assisted eight
political offenders to escape and was kept in close confinement. General
Drentell, in consequence, declared Kief, Kharkov and other districts
under martial law.
A stormy scene took place between the Governor and his son Loris, in
which the former, mindful of the latter's past escapades, expressed his
belief that his son was implicated in the plots of his comrades, while
Loris indignantly denied all knowledge of the matter.
"Listen to me, Loris!" said the General, purple with rage. "I saved your
life once, at the risk of losing my own. As true as St. Nicholas hears
us, if ever you repeat your plottings, I shall be as inexorable as
though you were the meanest of the Czar's subjects."
Loris saw that his father was in earnest and recoiled before the wrath
of the stern old soldier. He again asserted his ignorance of any
conspiracy.
Not knowing how many more officers of the regiment were implicated,
Drentell decided to transfer the entire division to another district, in
the hope of severing any connection which might exist between the men
and the Revolutionary Committee.
Loris had to obey the order and accompany his regiment to the steppes of
Central Russia, where he remained until the active disorders in Kief a
year later recalled him.
Nihilism was not to be rooted out by the removal of any particular set
of men. It had spread its branches among all classes and conditions of
society, and the number of its adherents was increasing with alarming
rapidity.
The martyr who unflinchingly faces death for the sake of his faith, the
Nihilist who exposes himself to imprisonment or death in the hope of
attaining constitutional liberty, are examples of the heroic endurance
of minds exalted by principle. The Jew's devotion to his religion has
always been most intense when intolerance and persecution were at their
height. In like manner the love of liberty is developed to its greatest
extent when despotism seeks to stifle it.
"Brightest in dungeons, liberty thou art,
For there the habitation is the heart."
Twenty-one persons were arrested in Kief, and almost as many in Kharkov,
and still Nihilism was not stamped out. Phoenix-like it arose from the
ashes of its martyrs.
On February the 17th, 1880, just as the imperial family were about to
dine, a mine was exploded beneath the winter palace, the guard-room was
demolished, ten soldiers were killed and forty-five wounded; but, the
divinity which sometimes hedges a king preserved the royal family from
harm.
Excitement was intense. A commission of public safety, with authority to
preserve order at any cost, was at once appointed, with General Melikoff
at the head.
On the second day of March, during the festival, General Melikoff was
shot at as he alighted from his carriage. The would-be assassin was so
close that the General struck him in the face, and the man was arrested.
At the trial it was discovered that the malefactor was a baptized Jew,
by the name of Wadetsky Minsk. The trial excited universal interest. The
culprit was asked by the judge why he had deserted his faith.
"Because I found it impossible to live as a Jew," he replied, bitterly.
"You took from me my children to send them to the army; you deprived me
of the lands I had cultivated and left me penniless; you despised and
degraded me, and when I had suffered until the fibres of my heart were
torn, you showed me a glowing picture of the happiness that awaited me
here and in heaven if I became a Christian. I allowed myself to be
baptized."
Minsk paused, and the expression of his face showed the mental anguish
he was at that moment enduring. Suddenly, he continued, with great
vehemence:
"Yes, I became a Christian, or rather a godless hypocrite, who had
bartered away the sympathy of his co-religionists as well as his
self-respect. How did you treat me after I had embraced your faith?
Humiliations, worse than any I had experienced as a Jew, were showered
upon me. I was regarded as something impure, shunned and execrated. It
was too late to turn back, and in spite of your treatment, I remained a
Christian, I adhered to the glorious faith which teaches 'Peace on earth
and good-will to men.' In sheer desperation, I joined the band of
unfortunates as reckless as myself, whose self-imposed mission it is to
pave the way to liberty."
Minsk preserved a defiant demeanor throughout the trial. He made no
defence, nor did he endeavor to have his punishment mitigated. His
condemnation followed, as a matter of course.
The scaffold found him unsubdued.
"My attempt has failed," he cried, "but think not that General Melikoff
is safe! After me will come a second, and after him a third. Melikoff
must fall, and the Czar will not long survive him."
The fifth of March witnessed his death struggles upon the scaffold.
Darker and darker it grew in Israel. The sun of its brief prosperity was
gradually becoming obscured by heavy clouds of intolerance and
fanaticism, clouds which did not display the proverbial silver lining of
hope and comfort. This was a period of great activity for Mikail; never
before had he found such congenial employment. After making a series of
one-sided investigations, in which he interrogated principally those who
had real or imaginary cause for complaint against the Hebrews, the
priest embodied his conclusions in a book, entitled "The Annihilation of
the Jews." Unquenchable hatred breathed in every page. With a cunning
hand, he subverted facts to suit his fancy. He drew a vivid picture of
the great dissatisfaction existing because the Hebrews were achieving
success in various branches of enterprise to the exclusion of the
gentiles. With peculiar logic he argued that sooner or later quarrels
must ensue between the races, that if there were no Jews there could be
no trouble, and that they should therefore be driven out of the country.
His work accused the Jews of thriving almost entirely upon usury and
gross dishonesty, in spite of the fact that many of the chief industries
of Russia were in the hands of thrifty and honorable Israelites. It
purposed to forbid the Jews from keeping inns, on the ground that they
fostered intemperance, in the face of statistics which showed
drunkenness to be most prevalent in provinces where no Jews are allowed
to reside. It finally advised the confiscation of all property belonging
to the Jews and the summary expulsion of the despised race from the
Empire.
Such a book, at a time when rulers and people were alike eager for
sensation, acted like a firebrand. The newspapers, knowing that the
author was a member of the commission appointed by the Czar to
investigate the conduct of the Jews and that his work would receive the
imperial sanction, published extracts from its pages and commented
editorially upon its arguments. Mikail's conclusions were accepted, and
the cry rang throughout Russia, "Down with the Jews!" In all the land
there was not a man who dared raise his voice in defence of the
unfortunate people.
That Minsk, the would-be slayer of Melikoff, had once been a Jew, served
to increase the outcry against the race. Of the scores of Nihilists who
had already been executed not one was alluded to as a Catholic, although
that church claimed them as her own; but the newspapers added the word
"Jew" every time they had occasion to mention his name.
There were as yet no open hostilities in Russia. The great majority of
laborers and _moujiks_ knew nothing of this agitation. They lived in
peace with their Jewish neighbors, on whom many were dependent for work
and wages. For the best of reasons, they did not read the newspapers and
they cared little for the vague rumors of discontent that now and then
assailed their ears. Occasionally there were quarrels, but these were
unimportant and of rare occurrence.
A dispute arose one day in the shop of a man named Itikoff. A thief
entered his place and having requested the proprietor to get him a
certain article he rifled the money-box the moment the Jew's back was
turned. Itikoff saw the act in a mirror, and turning suddenly he seized
the man by the neck and beat him severely. The man's cries brought a
crowd to the door who, seeing a fellow-gentile maltreated by a Jew, at
once set upon the unfortunate shopkeeper and brutally assaulted him.
They then sacked his shop and threw his merchandise into the street,
whence it was quickly removed by the assembled mob. A number of
policemen arrived and arrested Itikoff for instigating a riot. Despite
his pleading he was carried to jail, and only released upon the payment
of a fine of two hundred roubles.[19]
Such occasional incidents, while they were characteristic of Russian
justice, were not of a nature to foster good feeling between the Jews
and the gentiles.
Then came the event of March 3, 1881. Through the mighty Empire flashed
the awful news, "The Czar has been assassinated!" For a time all other
affairs were left in the background. Before that dire catastrophe the
petty quarrels of the races faded into insignificance. Jew and gentile
alike met to mourn over their ruler and looked forward with pleasant
anticipation to the accession of the new Czar, Alexander III., to the
throne. The Nihilists, satisfied with their work, rested upon their arms
and waited to see if the new Emperor would yield to their demands. The
agitators who had conceived the crusade against the Jews as a means of
diverting public attention from St. Petersburg had been unsuccessful and
for the time being found their occupation gone. The Jew-haters,
Drentell, Mikail and others, were busy at the capital, currying favor
with the new government, and the poor Jews breathed more freely and
enjoyed a brief respite from danger.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 19: See report of "Russian Outrages," in _London Times_.]